What do you do with an empty box, bored kids and art supplies? You build a car!

In the box above I have:

A hot glue gun

Pipe Cleaners

Paint

An empty egg carton

Star cut outs

Scissors

Round make up applicators

Styrofom or paper plates

A Shower curtain

The first thing I did was hot glue the shower curtain to my tile floor.

This made for easy clean up and the hot glue did not damage my tile at all.

Next I put some paint on a plate and let the kids apply it with the make up applicators.

They are kids and are going to make a mess but I find the applicators are easier to hold than paint brushes and you can throw them away after.

While the paint dried I had the kids get started on coloring the wheels. The then put a star on each wheel. For the steering wheel I used the glue gun to melt a hole in the Styrofoam plate and use a pipe cleaner to secure it.

We put the plate inside the box and pushed the pipe cleaner through the box.

Egg cups from the egg carton were cut out to make headlights and yellow tissue paper was glued inside. They were secured to the front of the box using a hot glue gun.

We used stars and pieces cut from a recycled box for the tail lights.

The kids loved this activity and they still play with their car weeks later.

My kiddos ask to do experiments just about everyday! I actually will be reviewing a site that I joined for that purpose called Mystery Science in a different post. This experiment was very easy and a lot of fun. Most importantly you probably have most if not all these ingredients in your home already.

**We tried the experiment with aspirin and it fell flat so we re-did it with

Alka Seltzer and red food coloring.

First we put the oil then water into the jar and let it settle.

I asked these questions:

What is happening to the water?

What is happening to the oil?

Next we added a few drops of food coloring. Add as much as you like we did 6 drops.

I asked: What is happening to the food coloring?

(If the jar is steady it should stay together and not mix very much.

Finally we dropped in the Alka-Seltzer tablet and watched the magic happen.

I asked:

What is happening to the oil and water?

Why do you think that is?

Since oil and water do not mix, the water bubbles caused by the Alka-seltzer float through the oil causing it to take on the same effect as a lava lamp. When the mixture is shaken the oil and water in time will separate again rather than mix.